Sherod Santos (born September 9, 1948 in Greenville, South Carolina) is an American poet, essayist, translator and playwright.^[1] His newest poetry collection, Square Inch Hours (W.W. Norton) was published in 2017. His work has appeared in The New Yorker,^[2] The Paris Review,^[3] The Nation,^[4] Poetry, The Royal Court Theatre, Proscenium Theatre Journal, American Poetry Review, and The New York Times Book Review. The Algonquin Theatre in New York City, The Side Project in Chicago, the Brooklyn International Theatre Festival, and the Flint Michigan Play Festival have all staged productions of his plays. He wrote the settings for the Sappho poems in the CD Magus Insipiens, composed by Paul Sanchez and sung by soprano Kayleen Sanchez.

His many honors and awards include an Academy Award for Literary Excellence from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Umhoefer Prize for Achievement in the Humanities, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, the Theodore Roethke Memorial Prize. He was a finalist for The New Yorker Book Award in Poetry as well as The National Book Critics Circle Award and The National Book Award. From 1990 to 1998 he served as external examiner and poet-in-residence at the Poets' House outside Belfast, Northern Ireland.

He lives in Chicago, Illinois, where he works in an outreach program for the homeless.

Honors and awards

• 2006 Umhoefer Prize for Achievement in the Humanities for Greek Lyric Poetry: A New Translation
• 2002 Theodore Roethke Poetry Prize for The Pilot Star Elegies
• 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism Finalist for A Poetry of Two Minds
• 2000 National Book Award Finalist
• 1999 Academy Award for Literary Excellence from the American Academy of Arts & Letters
• 1999 The New Yorker Book Award in Poetry Finalist
• 1998 Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry from the Paris Review for "Elegy for My Sister"
• 1987 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship
• 1995 British Arts Council International Travel Grant
• 1984 The Robert Frost Place poet in residence in Franconia, New Hampshire
• 1983 Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award
• 1983 Guggenheim Fellowship^[5]
• 1982 Ingram Merrill Foundation fellowship
• 1981 Oscar Blumenthal Prize from Poetry magazine
• 1980 Pushcart Prize in both poetry and the essay
• 1978 "Discovery"/The Nation Award

Published works

Full-Length Poetry Collections

• Square Inch Hours. W. W. Norton & Company. 2017, ISBN 0393254984
• The Intricated Soul. W. W. Norton & Company. 2010. ISBN 978-0-393-07216-7.
• The Perishing. W. W. Norton & Company. 2004. ISBN 978-0-393-32576-8.
• The Pilot Star Elegies. W. W. Norton & Company. 2000. ISBN 978-0-393-32049-7.
• The City of Women. W. W. Norton & Company. 1994. ISBN 978-0-393-31175-4.
• The Southern Reaches. Wesleyan University Press. 1989.
• Accidental Weather. Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1982.

Essay Collections

• A Poetry of Two Minds. University of Georgia Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0-8203-2204-9.

Translations

• Greek Lyric Poetry: A New Translation. W. W. Norton & Company. 2005 ISBN 0-393-06056-X

"Plays"

• Follow the Leader. Produced at The Side Project, Chicago, IL, 2016.
• Lives of the Pigeons. Produced at The Side Project, Chicago, IL, 2013
• Star. Produced at Algonquin Theatre, New York City, 2010
• Coffee Shop. Produced as part of Flint Michigan Play Festival, 2010